Storm: Time Jump

The Doctor Dances

The Doctor had stridden into the child's room, and he began to pace it uneasily. Teresa quickly followed, not wanting to be left alone in the observation room with what would happen shortly. The recording kept calling: "Mummy? Please, mummy? Mummy?"

"Doctor?" Rose asked eventually, and the Doctor asked anxiously: "Can you sense it?"

"Sense what?" Jack demanded, and the Doctor answered, sounding strained: "Coming out of the walls. Can you feel it?"

"Mummy?" The recording asked again, and the Doctor turned to his companions abruptly.

Seeing their blank looks, except for Teresa's, he muttered: "Funny little human brains. How do you get around in those things?"

Rose explained to Jack, annoyed: "When he's stressed, he likes to insult species."

"Rose, I'm thinking." The Doctor snapped.

"Mummy?" The recording asked, and Rose continued, ignoring the Doctor as she said to Jack: "He cuts himself shaving, he does half an hour on life forms he's cleverer than."

The Doctor abruptly stopped, standing in front of the broken window as he spun to look at Rose. She cut off and looked at him, meeting his gaze expectantly. The Doctor explained: "There are these children living rough round the bomb sites. They come out during air-raids looking for food."

"Mummy, please?" The child's voice asked, Teresa's blood chilled as the Doctor paused and she heard a strange ticking noise.

The Doctor continued: "Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed?"

"It was a med-ship." Jack argued, sounding exasperated at the Doctor's continual accusations. "It was harmless."

The Doctor retorted: "Yes, you keep saying harmless. Suppose one of them was affected, altered?"

"Altered how?" Rose asked, and the child called: "I'm here!"

"It's afraid." The Doctor murmured. "Terribly afraid and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do."

He chuckled a little bitterly, and he commented in a mix of amusement and fear: "It's got the power of a god, and I just sent it to its room."

He smiled grimly, almost manically.

"Doctor? Terry?" Rose asked, sounding terrified as she finally also heard the ticking noise.

"I'm here. Can't you see me?" The boy asked, and Rose asked desperately: "What's that noise?"

"The end of the tape." Teresa said faintly.

Rose and Jack's eyes widened as the Doctor's smile dropped and he added grimly: "It ran out about thirty seconds ago."

They all listened to the clicking sound as the child called: "I'm here, now. Can't you see me?"

"I sent it to its room." The Doctor repeated. Rose shook her head, her mind uncomprehending even as her face paled as her body understood. The Doctor finished flatly: "This is its room."

He spun around, and spotted the little boy right before him, behind the observation desk. They all saw it now as the Doctor backed away a little, and the boy asked: "Are you my mummy?"

He cocked his head, examining Rose.

"Mummy?" He asked, before his head tilted back up, only to cock to the other side as he examined Teresa.

"Doctor?" Rose asked faintly, and Jack murmured with forced calm: "Okay," he reached into his jacket, "on my signal make for the door."

He sidled behind the Doctor, moving slowly towards the boy as the child called: "Mummy?"